Thanksgiving day is something that probably is owed a bit more than it gets. Its basically a holiday all about being grateful and loving your family that is beaten between two holidays, out-merchandised, has their celebrations overlapping its own despite that one's past and one is a month+ ahead, and then on top of all that its being squeezed out by stupid black Friday schedules that aren't even on Friday anymore. Thankfully (no pun intended) its one of the easiest holidays to do a blog special on, and I've got the perfect thing in mind from the "thankful" part, its not exactly family related. Lets talk about Singularity.
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| Yes, that one. |
So what's a game about time warping, zombie shooting, evil Russians, and a magical hand zapper that turns people into skeletal dust got to do with Turkey day? Well basically, its got about 70% of everything I love in a shooter, mostly on the campy B movie side of things. Actually that just might be the best way to describe it, because it really does pan out a lot like a nice looking B movie with about as equal reception as one. Its got almost zero attention in general, but sometimes a corner on the internet whispers out "That game was amazing!" before a few other people ask that guy "was that supposed to be Raven's Bioshock game or something?". I never really understood that comparison for the record, but oh well lets move on. The game puts you in the role of an American soldier sent to investigate an old secret abandoned Russian island where dark experiments took place. Weird readings are going on in the area, and its up to you and a small team to figure it out. Suddenly you find yourself warping into ghostly realities before a full time rift sucks you into the island's past. From there you rescue a man who was about to burn up in a flaming building. Really that wasn't ever supposed to happen, and that little incident ruins the entire operation and gets the island to its present ghostly condition, but your change alters so very much... for you rescued the leader. You find yourself thrown back into present (or, er... 2010) and things are... wrong. Subtle changes at first, but then you find yourself overwhelmed by monsters, only to then be pulled aside by the Russian army and get told one horrifying truth: Russia won the cold war because of this man you saved, and from then on he took the thrown as world dictator.
So by the 3 hour mark the game has basically turned into a B movie plot full of time travel, evil Russians, and evil zombie mutant monsters caused by those Russians and their evil sci-fi energy experiments, and you're the American hero who's got to stop it all with the help of a female british agent, and a convenient good guy Russian scientist. Again, B movie describes this all so very well. However its not a movie, so what's the gameplay like. Well its basically like a weird combination between Half-life 2's format, and... well something else. Its got the health packs, monsters, pick-ups to explore for, and evil science plots, but then there's the bioshock/farcry-like med pack holders, a two weapon limit, weapon lockers with upgrades, and then the TDM device which contextually alters the environment. So... its pretty solid. More shockingly, its a really solid FPS for its time period. Not necessarily a perfect "throw-back" title, but it really holds up well on a few older traits I love in shooters from the early 2000's. The narrative and world exploration is especially nailed down for that kind of game. Its just great that its also so littered full of lore pick-ups, and yet so many horrific scenery that its not horrific at all but rather just "oh, hey another room full of impaled soliders hanging on the walls." Its just good campy crazy sci-fi FPS fun.
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| Lets do the time warp again! |
Are there flaws? Well yeah. The worst is nearly one of the very basics: two weapon limit. the game has some unusual weapons mixed in with decent military style weapons, and then you can upgrade them all, but ultimately you're told "two weapons only, pal!". This feels very limiting in a game like this, and just doesn't fit very well. However what's even worse is the layout of the game itself, in that there's no way to properly replay the game. You start a new game, and from then on you're following that path as linear as can be until the ending checkpoint. From then on, all of that work cannot be re-visited, and you've just got to start a new game. On top of all that, you can't change the difficulty without starting the game on the one you want (and now I'm playing a regretted choice of Easy, and I'm nearly invincible so far). If I were to also nitpick, the bulk of this game's monsters are visually dull as they're basically just zombies with warts and glowy bits instead of decay. The variety is still nice with phasing enemies, ones that throw items, and just generic ones that charge but can have their limbs shot off. Plus if you were trying to find an amazing critically acclaimed story, you're in the wrong game. Its a bit silly, and the plot is very obviously tailored to convenient writing + player interaction, with things like a conveniently working little model with perfect audio recording (and oddly in English) telling you what each part of the island does. Its a silly set-up in the end, and if you want to enjoy it, you've got to be like me and embrace this sort of crazy sci-fi energy monster stuff with face-melting time blasters going on your wrist that came out of an alternative time line from the 50's.
Giving thanks...
So I still didn't exactly justify how this possibly ties in with Thanksgiving day. Its a weird game to pick at first glance not only because of its just not a seasonal game, but also because its just not a very well regarded game. Its got some harsh flaws to that keep it away from being replayed and getting the attention, BulletStorm, Mtro, Killzone, or Resistance might be getting. So why this game? Well in kind of a way, that's the whole point. Thanksgiving is all about overcoming the faults of something to see something amazing, and to be thankful that it has enhanced your life in some way... as well as just appreciating the simple things, like having the ability to eat food and live.
Singularity is a game that doesn't get a lot of attention. Some who know it, know its cool, but its as if so few do, and even those that do know of it feel like their time is spent discussing better things. Singularity also flopped on the market, not selling many copies, and helping to cement Raven Software's company behind assisting COD. Oh and speaking of it, lets not forget Activision published this... yup, my personal least favorite publisher put out this amazing game full of FPS tropes I adore. The best part though, is that this isn't the end of their story. Recently announced, Raven is allowed to make a sequel. How often does that kind of 180 turn around happen from a stingy and mean publisher? Ultimately I'm grateful for this game. I'm able to overcome my hate for this publisher to say they made a great game outside their normal triad of big hits, I'm grateful its managed to get a sequel that'll happen sometime, I'm thankful for all of its campy FPS tropes and how well its handled all of it, and I'm grateful for the good gameplay of it all. Playing this game just makes me feel great about a genre that honestly isn't quite what it used to be, but still makes me think of that time, and how good it is. All the fun monsters to shoot at, the fun and conveniently placed notes to snoop through, the crazy science contraptions, the silly supervillains, and of course gaming as a whole for just being there and being this great. So thank you Activision, Raven, Sony (played on the PS3) for allowing such a fun game exist... even if it may be an obscured one.
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| Thank you spooky virtual world |
Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone.
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